Northern Tides
by FloodOfBoredom
Summary: Not all pirates come from East Blue. Follow a crew of rookies as they begin their adventure in the northern seas. Taking OC's.


**A/N****:** Well, this is the humble offering I bring to you in the form of chapter 1, hope you enjoy it.

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Krowyen was a relatively peaceful and idyllic coastal town on an island known as Swallow Isle; the name was due to the islands shape when looked at from above rather than an abundance of any particular avian species. To say the island actually resembled a swallow from above would be generous at best; maybe if you had impaired vision and were a little inebriated… and had never seen a swallow before in your life then you _could possibly_ be persuaded that it was swallow-shaped. The cartographer that had mapped out the islands in that particular part of the North Blue had apparently been one such blind; drunken, ornithological novice and thus, Swallow Isle was official. One of the main reasons the island was so peaceful and idyllic was the permanent marine presence there. Krowyen was the location of the 73rd Marine Branch headquarters which served as a strong deterrent to any pirates that had any notions of causing trouble. Pirates foolish enough not to be deterred would instead be quickly_ dispatched _following summary judgement.

The 73rd Branch was a large white complex that consisted of three round buildings surrounded by a perimeter wall, the central and largest building had the blue Marine symbol emblazoned upon it in a font size somewhere in the high thousands. The building also had a bell housed at its peak that had not rung in the last eight months. It was however ringing now.

Inside the central cylinder several guards had just arrived at their emergency stations behind the buildings defensive gate, quite a cushy job if you could get it.

"What the hell is going on out there?" A particularly nervous looking marine asked. He took one of his hands away from his readied sword in order to wipe away beads of sweat which had begun to amass upon his brow.

"Oh relax newbie." A second marine mocked smugly. He was a very large man and had obviously been living the sedentary life of an inner gate guard for some time judging by his physique which seemed even more abundant in comparison to the gaunt frame of 'the newbie'. "There's at least thirty marines assigned to the outer perimeter when the bell rings out. If anyone gets past those trained soldiers then they've got to get through thi_s_," the stout marine rapped a knuckle against the ten foot high metal gate that the assembled men were gathered round, "it's a solid iron gate and at least eighteen inches thick. It will take a small army of heavily armed pirates to get through here before the reinforcements are swarming all over their asses." His rounded tomato like cheeks stretched into a confident grin, "It's probably just a drill anyway, I doubt there's even anyone out the-" The solid iron gate buckled off its hinges and collided with the wall opposite taking most of the gathered marines including the largest and most confident one with it. The only man remaining was the newbie but he could only look on as a garishly dressed figure darted in through the recently opened doorway and without paying attention to him at all ran further into the central holding facility. Once the intruder was well and truly out of sight the newbie staggered forwards on legs of jelly and glanced out of the open gateway. Thirty or so marines were scattered around what looked like a warzone, with long gouges scorched into the stone paving and brickwork it truly looked like a monster had torn through it. His eyes followed the path of destruction that lead toward his own position where a much deeper, wider groove emanating from a certain point in the courtyard bore its way to and through where the gate had been. The marine survivor followed the stone trench to where the buckled gate stood inset into the wall opposite the entrance. He didn't dare look at the soup that constituted his unfortunate comrades behind it but instead focused on the middle of the door. There, a single flattened ball no larger than your average bullet continued to glow a bright orange colour from its residual heat with the metal slab concaved around it.

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Further into the facility the intruder continued to cause havoc, any marines that had tried to stop him later reported a flash of blue light and a sound like a gunshot, at least they did once they regained consciousness.

To his friends, the intruder was known as Jaeger which meant he wasn't known as Jaeger to many people at all. His real name wasn't Jaeger but he'd abandoned his real name long ago, he had no use for it anymore and it would only make things complicated for him in his new life. Jaeger pushed those thoughts to the back of his head realising that this wasn't really the time for thinking about such things and instead pressed on. He'd been careful to keep his face obscured beneath the peak of his bright red cap just in case any of the marines saw him long enough to give a decent report to a sketch artist. It only really obscured his eyes though which when considering the fact he had a greyish complexion and an orange stripe from his bottom lip that went down beyond his throat seemed kind of redundant. Despite avoiding some of the less attractive physical traits of the fishman species like gills and webbed hands he did unfortunately still have to live with the markings, the pointy teeth and the eyes. His eyes almost resembled a negative of normal people's eyes which seemed to freak most out. He didn't mind that too much and his overall appearance had got him the epithet 'Demon of North Blue' which he thought was pretty cool. He'd realised he was getting distracted again and slammed on the breaks skidding to a halt and causing the heels of his red sneakers to screech along the linoleum floor.

"Where the hell is it? In fact, where the hell am I?" Jaeger grumbled. He reached into the pocket of his vibrant blue and yellow hoodie and pulled out a scrap of paper with crudely drawn directions and doodles scrawled across it. Jaeger had stopped at a crossroads formed of merging corridors that didn't appear to be on his detailed diagram. This seemed to have thrown a spanner in the works of his plans but in the end he let out a little moan of frustration followed by the words "Ah screw it." Jaeger then shoved the paper into another pocket and ran in a random direction.

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Below the central building the jailors shuffled nervously. It had been about twenty minutes since the bells started ringing, eighteen minutes since the terrifyingly loud bang had echoed around the room from above and at least twelve minutes since they'd heard any sort of report on the den den mushi comms.

"I don't like this Hiro. What the hell is going on up there?"

"How the hell would I know? I told you Rein, didn't I tell you? That prisoner looked too calm. I knew this would happen." Hiro replied glancing nervously across at the cell which was shrouded in shadow save for the shine of a toothy grin somewhere within.

"Did you?"

"Well, no. Not this exactly but something bad! I definitely said that something bad would come of it and now it has."

"Guess you must feel pretty vindicated then."

"Well er no not really. I'm mostly scared to be honest Rein."

"Wait, did you hear that?" Rein asked twitchily. He tilted his ear towards the double doors that were the only way in or out of the jail. "It sounded like someone unlocked the door. Maybe it's over; maybe the Captains come down to give us the all clear personally."

The double doors swung open, pushed by a silhouette set against the comparatively bright lights of the upper levels. Jaeger released the double doors and dropped his hands into the pockets of his black and orange shorts with only the pointed teeth of his grin visible beneath the peak of his cap. The two jailors immediately raised their pistols but at that moment the dim light bulbs which were the sole source of light for the dingy dungeon area all popped simultaneously, submerging the prison in darkness accompanied by the girlish whimper of one of the guards. Two gunshots flashed, boomed and echoed off the stone walls followed by two groans and two dull thuds. The room remained black and silent for several seconds afterwards changed only by a quick flash of blue light that briefly cast shadows from the bars across one of the cells. It was followed by the distinctive click of a lock disengaging and the metallic squeak of old hinges unloved by time.

Jaegers white irises somehow shone amidst the darkness, "Hey Captain. Sorry I'm late."

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**A/N:** Well that's that over with now onto the next one. Hopefully I'll get the next chapter out reasonably soon, I'll certainly give it a shot. This is obviously an OC story and I prefer OC stories to have characters from lots of people so please submit any OC's via PM and I'm sure I'll enjoy reading them, the more detailed the better. As far as time frame is concerned this is set roughly around the time of Luffy's adventures in East Blue, so that should give you an idea of what's what in the world.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this short opener and I hope you'll review to give me any tips/point out any errors or just make general comments.

Until next time,

FloodOfBoredom


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